Life Is But A Dream
by AllTooSure
Summary: Canon Compliant AU. In 6x10 (Wish You Were Here) we saw what became of our favorite fairy tale characters after Regina failed to cast the curse, but what happened in the 30 years we did not see? Teenage Emma is a young princess unsure of herself and her position in the kingdom. When a strange boy falls from the sky he kicks off a love story that will change the course of history.


Scholars and scrolls will forever record June the 3rd as the end of the War of Imbalance (named so after the unbelievable disparity in power that marked the earliest of the battles, where Snow's rag tag team of misfits took on the black guards at a 1:10 ratio), but ask anyone alive at the time when the war truly ended, and without a doubt they'd tell you it was October 23rd at 8:15 in the morning. For it was at that exact moment that Princess Emma was born.

Emma marked a new generation of royal children, those born not into times of strife and struggle but into luxury and opulence.

People were bored of the war. So many causalities, so much death all of it working towards the threat of a curse that never came. At first people had been afraid but now they were just tired. They longed for the days of old, when the kingdom held balls and fairs, and trade was strong. The Evil Queen was to live out the rest of life in banishment, and so, the people had decided, was the state of misery she had released. The birth of the beloved King and Queen's beautiful daughter was the first real celebration in the kingdoms but it set off a domino effect amongst the White Kingdoms contemporaries and it was not long until all kingdoms in the local sphere had sired an heir of their own.

Cinderella and Thomas had little Alexandra, followed by Aurora and Phillips son Phillip Jnr and Frederick and Abigail's twins William and Izora. Even new found allies from Arendelle, Anna and Kristoff had fallen pregnant not long after making the acquaintance of Snow and Charming.

A new era had fallen on Misthaven, one of peace and joy and Snow and Charming hoped it would be all their daughter would ever come to know.

Neverland was a dreadful place, made worse by the eternal night that now curtained the island. He didn't recall how long it had been since Pan allowed the sun to shine, 50 years? 100? Time seemed endless here.

8 hours sun and 16 hours night. Sunsets and sunrises. That was how it was supposed to be and that was how it was going to be again as soon as he got off this forsaken island. Everyone has said it was impossible but he had finally discovered an exit strategy, one that didn't involve one of Pan's "deals" and he was going to be the first person to leave Neverland under their free will in perhaps centuries.

He said goodbye to Tink and asked her to give his best for the few lost boys he could still stand. He would have liked to be able to say his farewells in person but nobody was really trustworthy in Neverland. Pan could be..persuasive and even if the boys didn't want to talk they might find themselves in a situation where they didn't have much of a choice. It was best for him to leave with as few people knowing as possible.

He didn't know where the shadow would take him but anywhere would be better than Neverland.

Emma was walking in the courtyard, wasting away the moments until her next tutor arrived and she would be forced to put away her idle thoughts and focus on the verb and consonants that made up her French lesson.

On the horizon, on the edge of the castle forest she could see the guards practicing their sword fighting. She stared for a moment as she saw her father approaching them on horseback. He jumped off the horse and clapped one man on the bicep, taking the man's sword into his hand. Another man, much younger than her father, took to the fencing position and the two began to spar, playfully.

Her father was an amazing fighter, as was her mother. Both of them were warriors at heart not at all like her. Emma was soft. She knew it. Everyone knew it. It's why the court was so concerned with getting her married to a man who could protect the kingdom. They often proposed matches but her parents refused to arrange a marriage. They were one of the most famous instances of True Love in the Kingdom. They knew how important love was for a happy life and in no way would they deprive their daughter of the opportunity to achieve that same happiness. She was grateful for that but she worried about letting her kingdom down. She wished she could be as strong as they were, as good at fighting but despite their best efforts to teach her, she was as hopeless as ever.

Her parents were always patient and kind to her, but she could feel their worry. Every time she dropped the sword or fumbled with an arrow, she could feel them looking at each other with concern. She had many talents, she knew, she was kind and funny and took to her lessons quickly, even sports and athletics were easy for her. She couldn't understand it. Only when it came to battle activities and any form of confrontation she was struck frozen, immediately losing all of her nerve and instantly being reduced to the sniveling little girl she always feared she was.

She sighed loudly to herself and continued looking wistfully out towards her father. He had won the battle, like he and her mother always managed to do. Emma's eyes moved downward in deep thought when she saw a person suddenly fall from the sky and land on the grassy knoll in front of her. For a second she stood, planted to the ground, afraid of what or who it was that had fallen out of the sky. What if he were dangerous? Perhaps it was an assassin sent here to kill her family? Or a hostile wizard, with a spell gone wrong? The idea scared her, so she took a deep breath and hid behind a nearby pillar, cautiously sneaking looks at the fallen figure.

During her first glance she noticed that whoever it was who had intruded on her pleasant afternoon was wearing ripped up clothes. They had a mass of shoulder length, curly brown hair and looked quite skinny. The intruded stirred a second, lifting his head up with a bit of a struggle. During that performance Emma noted that the mysterious figure was a boy, not much older than herself. She heard the boy whimper in pain and, feeling less afraid, made her move to approach him.

"Hello, boy? Are you – are you okay?" She asked, hesitantly.

The boy looked at her with squinted in eyes, taking in the halo like wreath her hair was fashioned in around her head. For a second he questioned if he were dead because the girl in front of him was so beautiful she had to be an angel. No mortal creature could have eyes that green or a smile that bright. He looked up to her in a daze, smiled wistfully, and then passed out with a groan.

The basics of medical care was one skill Emma had been dedicated to learning. It wasn't necessary for princess to know and most of her friends in court deemed it peasants work but Emma wanted to be as useful as possible and if she could not fight she figured that the best thing she could do was help mend those who could.

Right now those skills were coming to her advantage as she cared for the mysterious boy and helped nurture him back to health. He had been placed in one of the spare bedrooms and, under Emma's insistence, was given the best materials to help foster his health.

Emma found herself drawn to the boy for reasons she did not know. He was unlike anyone she had ever met. All the people she knew ran in the same circles, if she hadn't meet them before someone she knew had and they almost always knew of her, though the version of her they knew was usually a lot more condensed then she would have liked. More focused on her looks, the blonde daughter of the Kingdom's fairest princess, then on any of her personality traits.

She dabbed the boy's forehead with a wet cloth taking off some of the dirt that covered his face. The guards had hung up posters of the boy around town but at this point, nobody claimed to know him. His clothes looked sewn together from scraps of fabric and particularly course leaves and fauna. Her mother looked at the boy's clothes and suggested that he was a forest boy, a wild boy. She had met people like that in the forest, some only communicating in grunts and whines, and the way they fashioned clothes was similar. She put a call out to the birds she had known to poke around a little but made no guarantees of how successful they would be.

It was three days later that the boy woke up. He was frightened, initially making to jump out of the strange bed he found himself sleeping in but stopping when the pain in his ribs made him involuntarily yell. It was then that the girl he had seen when he fell to the earth came dashing into his room.

"Ugh, where…where am I? Who are you?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Be careful." Emma said, as she pushed the boy to lay back into the bed. "My name is Emma. Princess Emma of Misthaven. And you're in the East Wing of Misthaven Castle."

"Misthaven? Am I… I am in the Enchanted Forest, aren't I? Oh no, my father.."

"Calm down. With your damage you can't be working yourself into a fit like that. You have to take it easy or you'll end up undoing all of Doc's hard work. Yes, you're in the Enchanted Forest. You fell out of the sky three days ago. Do you remember anything? How about your name?"

"I'm..My names Baelfire. People call me Bae."

"Baelfire? That's a very strange name. I haven't heard of anyone called that outside of my history books. It had a minor surge in popularity near 300 years ago during the first Ogre War. Are your parents historians?"

"No. My father is - was a spinner. But he – he isn't around anymore."

"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it must be like to be without your father. I don't think I could survive without my own. Do you have any family? A mother, perhaps?"

"No. I don't have anyone." Bae looked down. Tears welled up in his eyes. He hadn't thought of it before this moment. In Neverland everyone is an orphan and nothing will get the crap beaten out of you quicker than feeling sorry for yourself or worse, wishing for your parents.

Emma took the boys hand in her own. She loved her parents very much. They were always there for her. Always willing to offer advice or even just a comforting hug. Of course they had their disagreements but she knew they were her twin pillars in life and admired them both, as leaders and parents, more than anyone else in the kingdom. She felt terrible for this boy, not much older than herself, who found himself all alone in the world, without parents or a family of his own.

"You must stay with us. I insist. My parents are wonderfully generous people and they couldn't stand to have you all alone, not without anyone else to watch out for you."

"Your _parents_ sound really nice and all but I don't want be anyone's charity case. I'll leave tomorrow once I am fine to walk."

"Don't be ridiculous. You aren't anyone's charity case. You're my guest. And – and if you try to leave before I think your ready I'll- I'll have you arrested." The princess said tilting her chin up. She wasn't used to using her status as royalty to get her way. It wasn't often that she was put in a situation where someone wanted to deny her something she wanted but on the rare occasions that did happen, she had handled it with all the grace her mother had imparted on her. For some reason though, something inside of her just couldn't let this strange boy leave. The mere idea of it seemed fundamentally wrong to her.

Bae laughed, his brown eyes twinkling in a way she hadn't seen before and she smirked involuntary.

"Okay, princess. For you, I'll stay."

"Good." She said with a soft nod and a small, secret smile. "You should get your rest now."

"I will. Just one more question. Is – Do you know whatever became of the – the Dark One?"

"The Dark One? No, I am sorry. I can't say that I have ever heard of that name before."

With only a short worried glance at Bae, Emma extinguished the rooms candle and closed the door. Bae frowned to himself in the darkness and let memories of his father overcome him until he slowly drifted into a deep sleep.

Emma visited Bae every day after that. Sometimes she would read to him, not from the serious novels and texts and her lessons required, but from the frivolous pamphlets and silly books that Graham would sneak into the castle for her. The stories in them had the young adults laughing and smiling long into the night.

News of Princess Emma's extended visits with the boy had spread throughout the court and some of the gossip was less favourable then Emma would have hoped. The idea of halting, or even lessening, her visits with Baelfire never crossed her mind. She had never cared what other people thought of her, a privilege, she guessed, of being the Princess and not having to rely on the good word of others to get by. But even if the gossip had had the ability to determine her future, Emma couldn't say she would have changed anything. She had far too much fun with Bae. The moments spent with him were the highlight of her day, and trading them in for anything, much less something as intangible as a good reputation, seemed ridiculous to Emma.

Still, one of Emma's favorite ladies in waiting had taken it upon herself to mention it to Emma that it was quite improper for the crown princess to be spending so much time alone with an unknown boy. Luckily, Queen Snow had quickly rebuffed the notion and all of its implications.

"I lived with seven men before I got married and it has never caused a problem between me and Charming or lead to any legitimate issues during my reign. My daughter shall have the freedom to spend her time as she pleases and any talk otherwise will not be accepted in my court." She had said, quiet loudly, at a formal dinner for a visiting dignitary. Emma, who was sitting beside her smiled so widely at her mother's speech. She knew at that moment that she had the best mother in all the realms.

After dinner Snow approached Emma in the privacy of her bedroom. She gently touched the crown sitting on Emma's head and fiddled with her hair in a way that made it easy for Emma to see that there was something on Snow's mind that she wanted to talk about.

"You looked so beautiful tonight, Emma. And the way you handled yourself when Evie brought up your relationship with Baelfire. You had all the composure and grace of a queen."

"Not nearly as much as you showed when you shut her down later at the dinner table."

Snow smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling with joy.

"Well, if she insists on insulting my daughter she should at least have the good taste to not do it in front of me."

Emma laughed and leant her head onto her mother's arm. At the touch of her daughter's cheek against her arm, Snow grasped on tighter to Emma's shoulder.

"Emma, what _is_ going on with you and Bae?"

Emma straightened her head immediately and pulled away from her mother's grasp. She grabbed the brush off of her amour and began on her hair.

"Nothing. We're just friends. He's sick and I am making him feel better. Like I am supposed to. The Princess is supposed to help people."

"I know what Princess are supposed to do." Snow said with a dry laugh. "Emma, please. You talk about him all of the time. There isn't a free moment when you're not rushing off to be at his bedside or taking him for walks about the castle. I think I even caught you scribbling his name on some of your books during our last talk. Are you in love with him?"

Emma paused for a moment, taking in all of her mother's words. It was true. She tried to deny it to herself and to everyone else but all of it was as true as any fact that graced the pages of her math books and having it all laid out like that made it seem pathetic to pretend otherwise.

"What if I did? What if I love Bae? What would be the consequence?" She said, fearing her mother's response. She knew her parents were the poster children for true love and she had been told of her father's humble beginnings as a shepherd but she also knew how different times had been back then. Her mother had fallen in love as a bandit, not as a Princess and today's political climate did not call for a warrior like it had then. Today's rulers were expected to be educated, refined and hailing from a powerful political ally which, for all Bae's charm, she knew the boy did not possess.

Still, she could not imagine marrying another and she feared that if her mother's responded as she thought she might, then not only would she lose Bae forever but a part of the affection she held for her parents may very well die with her burgeoning relationship. "Emma," Snow said, taking Emma's wrist in her hand and pulling her to sit beside her. "Love, true love, is the greatest magic of all. I have seen lives destroyed in pursuit of it and entire worlds saved through the power it holds. Your father and I have it and I would not trade it for all the gold in the kingdom. If you truly believe that you have found it with Baelfire, then forget what the ladies at court think, forget what that knights say, hell, forget even my own words and follow your heart. It will lead you to right place and that is all me and your father have ever wanted for you."

Emma turned to Snow and wrapped her arms around the queen in the tightest hug she had ever given. Tears of joy streamed down her face. Yes, she definitely had the best mother ever.

Not long after his arrival, Bae began to heal and Emma feared that he would be leaving soon. He had told her about Neverland and bits and pieces about his life before that, including how the Darling Family had looked after him and of all the amazing technology that a place called London had had, but he had yet to mention his family again and Emma wondered if he was tempted to reach out to some distant relation of his and leave her behind forever.

As Bae got better, the young couple began taking walks outside of the castle. They would sit on the steps of the courtyard and make pictures out of the clouds and share all of the thoughts that came into their heads.

"Do you ever feel like you're not you?" Bae asked her one day as a fit of giggles died down and a somber tone filled its absence.

"What do you mean?"

"Like you're pretending to be someone you're not and that if you put one foot out of line everyone will find out and turn against you. It's not that I am ungrateful, but I am not like you, Emma. I don't belong here. Everyone can see it."

Emma took Bae's hand in her own and stared him in the eye.

"Bae, I know exactly how you feel. I really do. So many times I feel like this..this veneer of the perfect princess is just a mask that I am wearing and that deep inside of me there is this warrior just fighting to get out but no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I practice with a sword or an arrow, I can't reach her. "

"But Emma, you're the strongest person I know."

"That's sweet Bae but you don't .. you don't need to lie to me."

"I am not lying, Ems. You're amazing. You balance all this pressure on your shoulders. You have an entire kingdom to look after, but you do it and you do it with more compassion and heart then I have ever seen. If you don't think that's strength then you're crazy."

Emma could feel herself melting into the ground at his words. Her eyes took in the individual features that made up his face. His kind brown eyes, his soft sweet lips that delivered words that meant more to her then any she had ever heard before.

"I love you." She said, well blurted out. It wasn't the way she imagined saying I love you. She didn't have time to overthink it and she didn't put in all the romantic pauses she wanted or make her voice sexy/husky like she always imagined she would. It came out quick like she was racing to the end, except in this case the finishing line was feeling of Bae's lips brushing against her own. Still it was Emma's first kiss and was everything she could have asked for.

It didn't end there though and that day, inside the garden walls, Emma did the first truly scandalous thing she had ever done and she did not regret it one bit.

Bae and Emma were married in a lavish ceremony on the first day of Fall. Truthfully, it was more than either of them would have planned for themselves, if given the choice, but given the already controversial circumstances regarding their relationship, the marriage had to be as traditional and well documented as possible so that the question of legitimacy could easily be rebuffed, if any allegations were made.

And, honestly, neither could really deny how beautiful it all looked. They used the same church in which Emma's parents had been married 18 years ago and as luck would have it, the same minister was still in service and was honored to marry Emma and Bae.

Bae looked extremely handsome in the light blue outfit of a prince. King David and Queen Snow were as grand and regal as any other as they looked over the young couple with wide smiles and hopeful eyes. Finally, Emma looked every bit the fairytale princess that she was, dressed in a snow white dress which complimented the dainty tiara that adorned her head. Looking on, you could barely tell that she was three months pregnant.

And when Emma uttered the confirmation of her vowels, she had never meant anything more. She was going to live with and love Baelfire for the rest of her life. They would grow old together, watching the White Kingdom prosper, her people enjoying the happiness her parents had won them, and as a couple they would see their child grow strong and happy surrounded by all the love they could give. Yes, with Bae as her husband and her family by her side, Emma would never want for more.

Or so she thought.

Two weeks following the wedding, Baelfire received word of a stranger seeking him out specifically. While even just six months ago a guest would have seemed strange to Bae, the truth was after his investiture the amount of people to come knocking for him had become almost innumerable. He had gone from a pariah lost boy, to an unwanted vagrant, to a much sort after prince in the matter of a couple of months and it was all a little much for him to take in. It seemed that now everyone wanted to speak with him, either to offer him (usually false) information on his dark past or to make an investment in his suddenly bright future.

A part of him had already grown weary of these constant intrusion but he had known this was a sacrifice he would be making when he proposed to the Princess and if it meant having Emma in his life everyday then it was the very least he would be willing to endure. The upcoming baby only strengthened his resolve to do his best as a Prince and, hopefully, make Emma proud of him.

He gestured for his servant to let his guest in and waited to see who it was who requested his company. To his surprise, the man who accompanied his server back to his chambers was not the type of person Bae had seen around the castle before. He did not recognize this man at all, and given his distinct appearance Bae was sure that he would have remembered seeing him about. This man was old, almost ancient. He had a dark grey beard and the humble robes of a monk. He seemed a kind sort, if Bae trusted himself to make such a judgement within seconds of meeting someone, which he didn't, but there was something very nervous about the old man in front of him that was more fitting for a gawky teenager then a man approaching his final years.

Bae eyed the old man with caution. As if he was suddenly aware that Bae was waiting for him to speak, the old man coughed and began to speak.

"I-Uh-I guess you're wondering who I am and what I am doing here."

Bae nodded. "Naturally." He replied.

"Yes. Very well then. I am the Apprentice. My master he is an extremely powerful wizard, perhaps the most powerful, and it is on his part that I have come to speak to you today."

"Get out." Bae pointed to the exit and the servants turned to pounce on the Apprentice. "I've dealt with magic before and I know it only ends in tragedy. I won't get involved in it again."

"Please, Baelfire. This is about your father."

"My father is dead."

"We both know Dark One's don't die, boy, not unless someone kills them."

Bae approached the Apprentice until he stood not more than an inch away from the man's nose. He looked into his eyes, searching for sincerity. He gestured for the guard to release the Apprentice. The old man flounced to the ground and Bae gritted his teeth.

"How do you know who my father is?"

"I am older then I look and I know a great deal of things."

"Do you know where he is?"

"My master has his suspicions but powerful magic is concealing his current whereabouts."

"I thought you said your Master was the most powerful Wizard of all."

"That he is but no one, not even my master, is all seeing."

"So what do you want me for? I don't know where dear old dad is and even if I did, I wouldn't want to talk to him."

"What if you could do what it was you wanted to all those years ago? What if you could break the curse and save him?"

"It's impossible. He doesn't want to be saved."

"My Master holds himself responsible for the Dark One's existence. He has created a method, a grail, with which someone with a strong heart can create a cure as long as he is motivated by only the purest of intentions. A son saving his father, that may fill the requirement. I am not going to lie though, this journey is dangerous. You must go to a hostile, kingdom ruled by a tyrant leader who has bewitched all his subjects to attack on sight and that is only half of the journey. We would still have to locate your father when you returned."

"Why would I do this? I have a family here, a wife and we're even having a kid soon. I can't just leave them to go on a senile man's goose chase."

"Call me whatever you like but I know you'll undertake this task for the same reason you left this realm the first time; you're a hero Bae and more importantly you're a son who loves his father."

Emma considered that this month may just be the most important of her life. Her legacy would forever be preserved with her upcoming actions, not through the birth of her child, though she hoped to make her unborn child proud with her decision but through the passing of one of the most important pieces of legislation to ever face the royal family.

Regina's reign had been a merciless dictatorship. The damage she had done not only to the White Kingdom but to the entirety of the Enchanted Forrest could not be overstated. Not only had she killed countless villagers but she set the standard of living back several years and halted the progress of both science and artistry for a decade.

The time immediately following her banishment had been an era of great rebuilding and no one knew that more than Emma, who found herself both a symbol of the new times and one of the most important figures in its protection. She did not so with a sword or on a battlefield but in the court of public opinion and the writing of carefully crafted rules and regulations.

Her latest, and to this date, most important proposal had been to establish a second house of court through which legislation must pass before it is to be accepted as law. A radical position in itself, Emma hoped to have the house filled not with Lords and Ladies but with elected officials from the working classes. The proposal had been met with a lot of opposition. Her enemies used it as further proof that she was too foolish to ever inherit the mantle of Queen, mistaking her compassion and foresight for weakness.

It did not matter what they said. Emma did not care for the opinions of others. Yes, she had her doubts about her own strength, her capabilities, but who in the public eye did not? She had to put those fears behind her to accomplish her goals and she could not let anything stand in her way. Soon, she would be too far along in her pregnancy to attend court with any regularity so if she wanted to have this matter passed she would have to call for a vote in the next month, which meant endlessly campaigning from here till then.

Of course this truth made the news of her husband's departure even more conflicting. He told her that he had heard word of a potential, growing political dispute in Camelot (a small ally of the White Kingdom located in the East) and he insisted on addressing the situation himself. Emma had asked him why when their where numerous delegates they could send but he insisted that he must go himself, and, knowing how desperately he wanted to prove himself as a leader, Emma had not made much of an attempt to fight him on it.

He promised to be back before the baby was born and, with eyes glowing in pride, told her how he wished to come back to not a kingdom but a democracy, a democracy she would be instrumental in bringing on.

On the morning that he was to leave, Emma held him close and pressing both their foreheads and lips together, but still clamoring for more intimacy, not necessarily that of a physical nature but an emotional one. Something that would stick in both of their minds forever as another one of those truly special memories that only they shared.

It was silly really. She knew it before she even began to move, but she had stories when she was a little of knights receiving a token of affection from their ladies when they left on great voyages and it had seemed romantic to her. And so she took a handkerchief from her purse, dried her tears with it and tied it around her husband's wrist.

"Don't you dare forget me." She said, once again holding him close.

"I could never. I promise this will not be a long trip. I'll be home before you're over the morning sickness."

"Oh wishing to be spared the sight and sounds of the pain you've inflicted on me, do you?" She laughed. He was always able to make her laugh, even when her heart was breaking.

"Seriously, Ems. I love you. I love our child. And once this issue is dealt with I promise I'll never leave either of you again."

Emma nodded he head, not understanding why this particular issue was of such importance to Bae but seeing how determined he was in the steely glare of his eyes. She wondered if she were to beg him to leave, would he stay? Would he do that for her? Or was whatever was calling him to Camelot even more important to him then their love? Was that even possible. Emma had loved a million people in her lifetime and been loved by millions more, but she doubted anything could come close to what she felt for the man now leaving her. If Bae felt even one tenth of that love, she knew whatever was compelling him to leave must be of the utter most importance.

One of Emma's ladies in waiting approached the pair with fear in her eyes. She did not wish to interrupt such a private moment but the court could not be kept waiting.

"Your Majesty, they are requesting your presence in the drawing room."

Emma smiled at the girl, hoping to ease her nerves, and nodded her head in thanks. She looked at Bae a final time, gave him a soft kiss on the lips. Still, even as she walked away she could not remove her hand from his. She stood and arm's length apart from him, their fingers entwined, before Bae finally withdrew his hand and made his way to the awaiting carriage. Emma looked back only once before making her way up the velvet covered steps and into the White Palace.

She would have stayed there all night, savoring his touch if only she knew that that was the last time she would ever see her husband.

* * *

 **I plan to write more to this, maybe a final chapter that deals with Emma having Henry and trying to rebuild her life and leads into the clips we saw in 6x10, but I felt I had to end this section here. I've never really written romance before (it isn't my thing) but I am pretty happy with how the relationship between Bae and Emma turned out.**

 **Any reviews are appreciated.**


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